Improv Everywhere “pranks” do two things: They make life fun, and they make me really want to punch a smug bastard.

While hanging out in New York’s Nelson Rockefeller Park the other weekend, I caught IE’s eighth “mp3 experiment”, which had fun bits and face-punchy bits.

The experiment itself was fantastic. Watch the video below or check out the gorgeous aerial photos near the bottom of this.

But their photographers have an annoying habit: they always sidle up to bystanders and go “wow, are you freaking out, man?” When I was asked this, I was visibly enjoying the show and particularly not freaking out.

Improv Everywhere videos regularly include this little detail, where the camera guys, maybe trying to seem like they just happened to be there with their professional cameras, ask “other” passerby what’s going on. This detail, probably just meant as a crowd-warmer, unfortunately makes IE look a bit like own-fart-smelling quirktards.

Which is a real shame because what they did in this park was exciting and beautiful and an amazing demonstration of how young nerds are so polite that over three thousand of them can show up in a park and they don’t even step on the blankets of the picnicking bystanders.

It’s just, you know, we’re all in on the joke now, OK? Flash mobs have been around eight years, and every high schooler in the city knows the date of the next Union Square pillow fight. So let’s stop pretending we’re makin’ the normals bug out, and appreciate that this fun still works without the “WTF” factor.